The new dawn government of President Hakainde Hichilema has set its vision clearly when it comes to copper mining – it wants to ramp up production to three million tonnes per annum in the next decade.

With current production standing around 800,000 metric tonnes (mt) per annum, it is quite an ambitious plan – too ambitious, some in the industry have argued.
But there is good motivation for such efforts – an expected huge demand for copper driven by the nascent electric car industry, and the price for the red metal, which peaked above US$10,000 per tonne about two years ago.

Copper prices reached an all-time high of US$10,512 per metric tonne on May 9, 2021, but have receded to about US$8,000 in the recent past, which is still a good price for copper producing countries such as Zambia.

Some mining companies in the country are already responding accordingly to the prospect of high demand, making new investments to increase production. But one major player, Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), cannot rush to the table yet, held back by

Read more: http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/konkola-key-to-hitting-3-million-tonnes-copper-target/

Konkola Copper Mines Plc (KCM) mine rescue teams have emerged winners of the 2022 national mine rescue competition, a dress-rehearsal undertaken to ascertain the preparedness of underground mine rescue teams to manage major mine accidents in the mining sector.

The annual event, which was held for five days from July 25, 2022 at the Victoria Falls Hydro-Power Station in Livingstone, comprised nine underground mine rescue teams from KCM, Mopani Copper Mines (MCM), NFCA, CNMC Luanshya, Lubambe Copper Mines and Mabiza Resources Nickel Mine.

The participants are assessed on various critical requirements in mine rescue such as fitness, team-work, firefighting and life-saving techniques, as well as disaster management.

KCM’s Nchanga Team C emerged overall winners of the national final heat competition, which is organized by the Zambia Mines Rescue Association (ZMRA).

The KCM Nchanga Team C scored 179.4 points in the tightly contested final heat where another KCM team Konkola Team A came out second with 179.1 points. Last year’s winners Lubambe Copper Mine Team B were in third position with 177.3 points.

KCM Group Safety Manager Operations Felix Sikaonga said the performance of the KCM teams underlined the Company’s priority placing Safety ahead of production and also an indication that the safety teams had not dropped the bar despite being away from the competition for three years.

Mr Sikaonga said, “We last participated in the final heat competition in 2018 where Nchanga C won the competition. They have replicated that victory, which is proof of the Company’s robust safety standards. It reinforces our continuous focus on safety trainings and other internal measures intended to safeguard life and our assets.” “KCM will continue to play a part in ensuring safety is upheld in all out operations as we also keep exchanging global best practices with our peers in order to make Zambia mining and communities in and around mining areas safe havens,” he said.

The KCM team, which won the 2018 competition is scheduled to represent Zambia at the 2022 International Mine Rescue Competition (IMRC) in West Virginia, USA in September, after the resumption of the international competition derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nchanga C team, the winners of the year’s final will again represent the country with two other teams from Mopani and Lubambe who won in 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively, in the international competitions which will be held in Colombia next year.

“These are exciting times in the sense that it is the first time that a KCM team will represent the country in an international mine rescue competition. We are confident of an award[1]winning performance from the KCM team,” he said.

This is contained in a statement issued by KCM General Manager Corporate Affairs Shapi Shachinda.

Source: https://tiozambia.com/kcm-team-wins-national-mine-rescue-competition/

Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) and ZANACO Bank have agreed to deepen their business partnership with possibilities of the bank increasing its short to medium term lending to the Company while KCM would explore ways of increasing its quantity in terms of business with the bank.

A delegation comprising six senior ZANACO officials led by Head Corporate and Investment Banking Andrew Muyaba met with Jason Kazilimani, the agent for the KCM Provisional Liquidator, Celine Nair to explore further business opportunities that would enable KCM to fund some growth projects intended to increase production in the short to medium term.

The Acting CEO of KCM Enock Mponda and four senior KCM officials also attended the discussions in Chingola.

The two parties agreed to sustain the current position of ZANACO as the biggest lender to KCM for letters of credit, which enable KCM to procure additional copper concentrates from local and foreign third parties for blending with KCM’s own copper concentrates in order to meet specifications for production of copper anodes at the Nchanga smelter.

The KCM officials told the bankers that the Company was strategically positioned to participate in the booming global industry of electric vehicles by enhancing copper and cobalt production, which are some of the metals used for wiring of electric vehicles and production of car batteries, respectively.

The Company seeks $17 million in financing to carry out an annual shutdown of the Nchanga smelter, which requires major upgrades to infrastructure in order to improve its efficiency, as well as other funds for the re-opened Chingola Open Pit (COP F&D), earmarked to commence ore production at the end of July. Other production areas at Konkola deep mine and Nchanga Open pits also need bridge financing to raise production.

“We need additional letters of credit for procurement of concentrates and we take note of the need for KCM to increase business transactions with ZANACO,” Mr Kazilimani said.

“We found ourselves as major lender to KCM and hope to grow our business portfolio with yourselves. We see this business relationship getting bigger and better, especially that we are now a one billion kwacha bank,” Mr Muyaba said in reference to ZANACO becoming the first bank to hit one billion kwacha in profit after tax in the 2021 financial year.

This is contained in a statement issued by Shapi Shachinda General Manager Corporate Affairs.

Source: https://tiozambia.com/kcm-zanaco-to-increase-business-partnership/